106 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



A PEN SKETCH OF CYRUS THOMAS, THIRD STATE 



ENTOMOLOGIST. 



BY F. W. GODING, M. D., RUTLAifD. 



" Poets are born, not made," may be true as far as poets are con- 

 cerned; but scientists are made, not born, as is well shown in the 

 following sketch. 



This well-known entomologist and Maya-linguist was born, July 

 27, 1825, in Kingsport, Sullivan county, Tennessee, of Pennsylvania- 

 German parents, whose home had formerly been in Maryland. 



During his youth, he attended the village schools, later spending 

 some time at the academies in that vicinity, though he never enjoyed 

 the advantage of a college course of study. He, however, obtained 

 a knowledge of the more advanced branches of science and mathe- 

 matics by individual effort, without the aid of a teacher. It appears 

 that his mother had intended for him to enter the medical profession 

 after a thorough course of study; but his tastes led him in an opposite 

 direction, and he began the study of law in 1849, in Jackson county, 

 Illinois, where he had recently located, at the same time being 

 engaged in teaching school. Two years afterward he was admitted 

 to the bar, about the same time being elected county clerk. 



In 1850 Mr. Thomas married a sister of the late Gen. John A. 

 Logan, who died in 1864. About this time he dropped the practice 

 of law, entering the Lutheran ministry, in which he became widely 

 known. 



Early in his career Mr. Thomas sought for some branch of 

 science in which he might carve a round in the ladder of fame. As 

 a consequence the study of entomology was takeu up, in 1856, 

 deliberately, as being least expensive and with the materials closest 

 at hand. After gaining a clear insight, by careful study and obser- 

 vation, into the intricacies of entomology in general, he made a 

 specialty of the Orthoptera, eventually becoming our greatest Ameri- 

 can authority thereon. His views early took a practical turn, and 

 his greatest delight was in contributing articles of economic import- 

 ance to the agricultural press. His writings on economic entomology 

 are to be found in files of the Prairie Farmer^ Rural New Yorker, 

 American Ayriculfurist, Farmers' Review, and the Transactions of 

 the Illinois Agricultural Society and those of this Society; while 

 those of a technical nature appeared in the Canadian Entomologist^ 

 Proceedings Academy Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Davenport 

 (la.) Academy Sciences, Chicago Academy Natural Sciences and State 

 and United States Government Reports. 



In 1869 Dr. Thomas was attached to Dr. Hayden's Geological 

 Survey, his attention being devoted to the agricultural resources and 

 entomology of the localities visited, remaining with the survey until 



